Naturally we all took advantage of the open bar, and I helped myself to a parade of Sidecars.

Now for...

THE BIG NEWS

Even though I mentioned this in the latest Hollow Fang newsletter, I thought I'd share more details about the comic deal I got with IDW Publishing to do a spin-off comic book/graphic novel of my Felix Gomez vampire-detective series.

IDW Publishing is based in San Diego and publishes titles that include Terminator, Star Trek, Angel, Lock & Key, Dr. Who, and G.I. Joe with writers such as Clive Barker and Joe Hill.

I've been contracted to write scripts that focus on an aside mentioned in my first novel The Nymphos of Rocky Flats. Before Felix tangled with the US Department of Energy, he got caught in a rumble with the Han Cobras Chinese drug gang. This comic book series is Killing the Cobra: Chinatown Trollop. Issue #1, Deadly Shadows, should be available May 2010.

I've been teamed with a couple of outstanding artists, Pintu and Alberto Dose.

This is a color sketch of the cover, as rendered by Pintu. Very dramatic and James Bond-ish.

I was curious to see how Alberto Dose would depict the scenes I described in the script.

The pages are first sent as pencil sketches and then black & white inked drawings. The color, dialog, and captions will be added later.

Another horizontal view, emphasizing the masts, rigging, and electrical wires crisscrossed above the junks.A blurry image of a man leaping--Spiderman style--in the gap between two of the masts.Night is getting darker.

Panel Three

High-angle shot of an elderly Chinese woman squatting on the deck of a junk.She’s surrounded by wash hanging on lines as she washes clothes in a bucket (remember, these people are poor).She’s looking up, surprised.

Panel Four

Close up of the woman as she continues to look up at the masts.

PAGE 2:

(inked)

Full panel.

Upper left is a drawing of two cobras coiled around the globe. (It's a beatdown of an undercover DEA agent)

The rest of the panel is the interior of a cabin inside one of the junks.The view is a low-angle shot behind a man bound to a heavy wooden chair.The man’s clothes are bloody and shredded and he’s slumped forward.Two thugs face him.A muscular brute has his shirt cuffs rolled back and looks like he’s been exerting himself.Blood dots his shirt.The other thug, skinny and rat-like, wearing a suit, leers at the man in the chair.Two more thugs watch in the background.

And in Page 3, we at last see Felix Gomez (on his way to rescue the DEA agent). Handsome guy, that Felix.

Stay tuned. I'll post the drawings and a few of the final color pages as they progress.